Electronic devices such as smart phones, tablet PCs, desktop PCs, portable multimedia players (PMPs), MP3 players, or wearable devices are widely used in these days. Such electronic devices are equipped with various sensors, so that the electronic device can acquire and utilize various kinds of information through the sensor. In particular, the electronic device can recognize a user location, based on information about a location thereof, and also provide useful functions based on the user location.
Traditionally, the electronic device can acquire location information thereof by using a global positioning system (GPS) function of receiving a satellite signal and measuring a current location. This technique, however, has some problems of requiring a GPS receiver and being unavailable in an indoor space. As an alternative technique for recognizing an indoor location, the electronic device may use a Bluetooth (BT) beacon. However, this technique as well needs an additional device and also is inconvenient for the user to reset whenever the location is changed.
In order to address the above-mentioned problems, an attempt has been made to recognize the location of the electronic device by using an access point (AP) widely installed in an indoor space for a wireless LAN (WLAN) service.